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Much thanks to Ian for submitting this one:
A man walks into a forest and gets captured by fairies. They tell him that they will kill him but he will choose his fate. He will say a statement, and if it is true, he will be
boiled in water. If it is false, he will be fried in oil.
How does the man get out of this situation?
[Will hold off on posting submitted answers for 24 hours, thanks]
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He will say "I will be boiled in oil"
The man should say a statement that is neither true or false, a paradoxical statement.
“I will be boiled in oil” will work..
He says he will be fried in oil.
I am lying
Clever, a, but if I was one of the fairies I’d be clever right back at him and fry him if he was standing up and boil him if he was prostrate.
I think he’d be safer just saying “I will be fried in oil.”
I will be fried in oil.
is he mr potato head? I would say, I choose to fry in oil.
I’d go with something along the lines of “I wil die today.” or “I will not die today.”
“yields falsity when appended to its own quotation” yields falsity when appended to its own quotation
he chooses to say nothing?
he could just not say anything, couldn’t he?
he says…”i will be fried in oil”
I will be fried in oil.
“I will not be boild in water”.
couldn’t he also just give an opinion??
Maybe he should say, ‘fairies don’t exist’.
simple, he doesnt say any thing at all
>simple, he doesnt say any thing at all
Oh God, I thought of this one but I thought it would be too simple. Is this the right answer?
If he says that fairies don’t exist, they will simply fry him for being wrong.
Don’t say anything. Just write an statement!
“I will be fried in oil” While the faries are trying to figure out what to do he hightails it out of Dodge!
Why doesn’t he just tell a story?
..why is it “i will be fried in oil” ????
he must say false
as there is no oil in the forest
only he can boiled in the water
so he must avoid saying truth
If he says, “I will be fried in oil” then the fairies are faced with a dilemma.
If they fry him in oil, that would make his statement true, which means he should have been boiled in water.
They can only boil him in water if he makes a true statement, but if they do, it would make his final statement false.
The fairies had no way our of their situation so they were forced to set him free.
A paradoxical statement should work. The statement “I will be fried in oil” doesn’t work, however, as it assumes that being fried in oil and being boiled in water are mutually exclusive. The fairies could fry you in oil, then boil you in water, or vice-versa.
A better paradoxical statement would be “this statement is false.” Confusion all round.
I believe the answer is, “I will die by being fried in oil” because if they do fry you in oil that would make the statement true. So they should have boiled you in water. If they boil you in water, that your statement is false so they should have fried you in oil.